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I figured they’d probably be looking for editors.
    My boss looked the resume over. ‘I know this girl,’ he exclaimed with delight. ‘Give her a call. Get her in here.’
    Our first telephone conversation was like having a conversation with myself, and funnily enough people were always mistaking Karen and me for each other on the phone. I believe Karen screeched for joy a few times when I told her to come see us about editing work, for she was being spared the fate of being a dental nurse — an occupation for which she proved creatively unsuited.
    So, Karen began her life as a starving artist and came to work at the studio for peanuts. I think I’d be putting it mildly to say that Karen and I hit it off like a house on fire. She was just beginning to explore esoteric thought and the power of the mind, and my scripts were full of such doctrines.
    In between my first manuscript, Everything We Know , and The Ancient Future , I wrote three and a half film scripts before I gave up on the film industry and decided to go back to writing books.
    The last one and a half film scripts I wrote Karen had a real passion for, and still has. The completed(but never complete) film script was entitled Chairs . This title, like the film script itself, has changed many times and yet, to this day, it is still being referred to as Chairs , and after ten years it is still threatening to be made.
    A wonderful pagan girl (Karena, film producer) has it under her wing and has taken it upon herself to fly with it — God speed!
    I met this film producer through Karen, I might add, so what goes around comes around. If Chairs ever does get made, it will be dedicated to Karen, who has believed in the project for longer than anyone who has been associated with it, including myself. The other half a film script that Karen has never stopped bugging me about is Book of Dreams . Only five or so people ever read this unfinished story and not one of them has let up at me about completing it. Thus, I have began writing it as a manuscript and the characters are so delightful that I believe Book of Dreams will finally be released as a novel sometime soon. Whether it ever becomes a film remains to be seen.
    After many years of thrashing it out as an assistant editor and many more years of editing documentaries and whatever other student film was going, Karen edited her first real television drama, and earned herself a nomination as Best Editor. The first feature film Karen edited just won best picture at the Berlin Film Festival. Go girl!
    All through my writing career, Karen has been following my stories, chapter by chapter, eagerly anticipating the plot, laughing at the jokes and falling in love with the characters. The character of Katren in The Ancient Future Trilogy had a fair whack of Karen in her.
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    By the time I began penning ‘The Detox Factor’, I had already written three short ghost stories dedicated to friends and the seed for this book had been planted.
    Karen is the kind of girl who would really appreciate being stuck in a ghost story, I thought. I also feel that I owe her a story for all her encouragement and feedback in the past, and just for being a most excellent friend.
    And, just to make sure that Karen didn’t feel too freaked out whilst in spook land, I decided to send her in with another character — the most tough-as-guts woman I’ve ever known.
    Here I must give special credit to a body building babe I had the joy of working with once. Her name is Mandy, and when I met her Tory Alexander was born. Mandy had been the female Australian body building champion twice and had represented Australia overseas. She took my esoteric beliefs and added philosophies like, ‘Get over it, mate,’ and‘Fuck it, babe!’ Fuck everything, as a matter a fact, the ‘f’ word being far and away Mandy’s favourite. She had a presence that was larger and louder than your average male.